The watering of livestock, pets, zoo animals, and the like when the ambient temperature is below the freezing point of water has been known for years to pose aggravating problems. Various approaches have been taken for trying to insure that fresh unfrozen water is constantly available to animals during such temperature conditions. Generally in the past the most common practice has been to provide heat to the container to prevent the freezing of the water therein. Typically this has been done through the use of resistive electrical current heating, or through the use of fossil fuel burning heaters which may be emersed within the water. The costs involved in the use of electricity and fossil fuel heaters have often discouraged the use of such devices. In addition, such devices generally require fairly constant monitoring to make sure that there has been no interruption in the energy supply which would prevent the operation of the heater.
Some years ago an attempt was made to develop an animal watering device which could use the heat of the earth to prevent the freezing of the water. The device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,720, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The geothermal watering device of that patent involved the use of components that had to be specifically designed for the apparatus. For example, the device of that patent employs a chamber 8 which surrounds the lower end of the water reservoir 18. Two tubes 10 and 12 are employed for cycling a working fluid from beneath the frost line to the chamber and back to a point beneath the earth. These specially designed components would obviously increase the production costs of the device both from the standpoint of the materials required and the expertise required for the assembly of the components.
An object of the present invention is to provide a means for heating a water supply for animals without the use of fossil fuels. Another object of the present invention is to provide a means for supplying liquid water to animals regardless of the ambient atmospheric temperature surrounding the supply of water.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved type of heat tube or heat pipe. Still yet another object is to provide a geothermally heated animal watering device which is easily assembled and which is constructed of relatively inexpensive components.
Other aspect, objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.